A mixed bag of Tales

I entered a place I have never been before. It is located at Dundas St and Runnymede Rd and is called Tail of the Junction. I guess because they are on the very tail end of the Toronto Junction neighborhood. This show was organized by a promoters Live events 4 U. First on the chopping block was a solo artist who called himself The Rough Go. It is a very good name considering he looked like a down and out punk rocker who crawled out of his rubble and is seeking redemption with his Folk/Punk style of music. There was something of a Shane MacGowan from the Pogues kind of energy. His songs had both an act of asking for forgiveness and still had some bitterness about the state of the world today. He even did a REM cover of Losing my Religion. This was a very good start for the evening.

Here are a couple pics from The Rough Go’s performance:

Next up was a total surprise. It was a single artist with a violin. I thought this was going to be a night of hard rocking. Peter Han (Solo) opened his set with two very dramatic pieces of music. This got the crowd’s attention. It seemed strange to add some culture to the evening, but then Peter went into Ozzy’s Crazy Train and it stopped the audience in their tracks. He continued with other metal classic from Bon Jovi, Metallica and Guns and Roses. Peter gave us his story about how he plays to a lot of weddings, Crappy Corporate events and other boring gigs. This was definitely more his can of ball bearings. He also admitted this was his very first forum of doing what he loves to do. He has hours worth of material to share with you. So I will not be satisfied until I see Peter headlining his own show and playing larger venues.

Here are a couple pics from Peter Han (Solo)’s performance:

Now we get back to the meat on the bone with punk rockers, Abrasive Measures. They opened with an instrumental that had a Motorhead feel to it. In the fine Punk style they kept their songs fast and short. Musically they were very solid. I just wished they would look a little more angry and intensity on stage. Their set was short and they finished off with a song that started off very muddy and murky, and eventually went at break neck speed to finish of this very voracious crowd.

Here are a couple pics from Abrasive Measures’ performance:

Finally we receive another solo artist named Mark Wylie. He comes from the Heavy metal band Maitreya, but this time around Mark showed off his gentler side with some pretty cool ambient music. He went through a lot of emotional changes in his set, like be very spacey to having a slight dark mood. He had you strolling in some sunshine and then brought it down with some pensive music about relationships. He even had a piece about his mother and the journey she took working hard at creating an amazing quilt, its lost travels to a contest in the United States, and finally the triumphant ending of what happened to that quilt.

Here is a pic from Mark Wylie’s performance:

Overall we had a true mixed bag of styles and sounds to engage in all evening. I hope the promoter does this more often in the future. I think he will help find a better audience for unique artists like these four.